Historical folk dance art in San Diego!

Last weekend the annual Harvest Festival at the Balboa Park Club featured folk dance and dancing workshops. Sadly, few people arrived for an event that has greatly faded in popularity over the years. I’m told young people are no longer taught folk dancing in school, as they once were years ago.

Shortly after entering the Balboa Park Club building, I discovered historical art painted on old signs, from the days when folk dancing brought both young and old together for a fun social gathering.

I learned that the wonderful graphics in my first photos were painted to promote the now defunct Kayso Folk Dance Club, which thrived in San Diego back in the 70’s and 80s. A gentleman named Kayso, originally from Armenia, painted the costumed dancing figures himself. The images might have become a bit worn over the years, but they still have great personality!

I also love the following old sign, which I learned is from the 1950s. It promotes the Cabrillo International Folk Dance Club, which is still alive and well!

The International Dance Association of San Diego County has a website here that lists dance clubs currently operating in Balboa Park and elsewhere around the city. You’ll find many opportunities to learn different dances, and to dance at every level of experience!

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Beautiful mural in Hillcrest at Crest Cafe!

For many years, a fantastic elephant mural has decorated the side of the Crest Cafe in Hillcrest. Last year, another mural was painted at the restaurant. The beautiful artwork can be seen at the front entrance.

San Diego based artist Austin Gosswiller painted the colorful flowers, birds and butterfly last year.

I took photos the other day…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Visitors to Timken museum Make the Sun Shine!

How often do you see artwork made by visitors to a fine art museum–displayed prominently at that museum?

Should you visit the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park, that’s what you’ll find!

Composed of squares decorated by visitors to the museum, Make the Sun Shine is displayed in the Timken’s elegant Central Gallery.

Marisol Rendón, the museum’s resident artist this summer, furnished the golden circles, and the public, using markers, stamps and pens, created the surrounding rays. People took their inspiration from the many masterpieces that fill the museum galleries.

I was told Make the Sun Shine will be on view for a few more weeks.

The amazing Timken Museum of Art is always free to the public. It might be small, but it’s loaded with Old Master masterpieces. In fact, it’s the only museum in San Diego with a Rembrandt in its permanent collection.

Look how beautiful these shining suns are!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Mexican Independence Day celebrated at Old Globe!

Here’s a collection of photographs for you to enjoy. I took them in Balboa Park today. Mexican Independence Day was celebrated in the Old Globe’s outdoor Copley Plaza!

I lingered for a little over an hour, listening to rousing mariachi music and watching joyful, colorful baile folklórico dancing.

A good crowd at tables around the outdoor stage enjoyed free Mexican candies and played Mexican lotería too! Many families enjoyed the festivities!

Anyone wandering about could also check out artists at their table. I recognized Maricruz Alvarado! You can see some of her beautiful work here and here!

What entertainment did I enjoy at this great Mexican Independence Day Celebration? Música Del Barrio with their pre-show music, Mariachi Continental SD, DanzArts folklórico dance, and the Radican Ensamble choir. There would be even more groups after I left to resume my Balboa Park walk.

The cultural celebration was produced by the Old Globe’s AXIS performing arts public engagement program. Learn more about AXIS here.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Join the 2025 Walk in Remembrance with Hope.

The 19th Annual Walk in Remembrance with Hope will be held in San Diego tomorrow morning, Sunday, September 14, 2025.

The Walk in Remembrance with Hope celebrates the lives of loved ones lost to suicide. It also raises awareness about suicide prevention.

The walkers and others will gather in Balboa Park on the grass near Sixth Avenue, south of Laurel Street. Registration begins at 7 am.

I met the good people setting up for the event this afternoon. The Walk in Remembrance with Hope is organized by Survivors of Suicide Loss. See their website here.

All ages, friends, family and pets are welcome to join! Start a team and invite your friends & family, or walk individually.

The event is a helpful resource fair, too, with vendor booths and more.

Even if you’ve never been personally affected by the tragedy of suicide, you can still help out these good people with a donation. Make your donation here.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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March of Transportation mural in Balboa Park.

Visitors inside the world-famous San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park should look up. Not only will they see amazing aircraft exhibits suspended from the ceiling, but they might notice a very long mural painted along the museum’s circular inner wall.

The March of Transportation mural was created in 1936 for the California Pacific International Exposition. At over 9,300 square feet, it’s the largest mural of its kind found in North and South America.

Because so many cool aviation displays are jammed into the museum, I found it difficult to photograph large segments of the mural. But I’ve captured several glimpses, so you can get the idea of how the art appears.

A couple years ago I photographed the very end of the mural, which depicts futuristic forms of transportation (as conceived almost a hundred years ago). You can see those photos here.

Several murals decorated the Ford Building during the California Pacific Exposition in 1935. After the Exposition, the Ford Motor Company deeded the building to the City of San Diego for use as the “Great Hall of Transportation.” In preparation for the 1936 Exposition, this large mural was commissioned to express the theme–“The March of Transportation.”

The 1936 “Great Hall of Transportation” exhibits included vehicles of all ages, from reed boats, to the locomotive, to the concepts of air and space travel. The mural, 18 feet high, continues along the inner circular wall for 468 feet…

Master Artist Juan Larrinaga served as the Art Director for the 1935 and 1936 Expositions. He was assisted by New York illustrator, Charles B. Falls, and artists P.T. Blackburn, Mahlan Blane and Nicolas Reveles. Larrinaga labored long hours to produced the drawings from the artist assistants to fill in. More than 40 persons eventually contributed their talent and energy to the completion of the mural.

After years of deterioration, the building began a restoration in 1977. In 1979 the mural, too, was restored.

While this artwork depicts world history, it is also an important part of San Diego’s uniquely rich history.

So go visit the San Diego Air & Space Museum . . . and look up!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Help save historic Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park!

The nonprofit Save Starlight organization has been working for years to save the historic 1935 Starlight Bowl amphitheater in Balboa Park. Perhaps you’ve been following the news concerning their heroic efforts.

An email blast that I received today reads:

Dear Friends of Starlight,

The moment we’ve been working toward for years has arrived. The City of San Diego has officially opened a 30-day window for Save Starlight to submit our Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) — the critical first step toward securing a long-term lease of the historic Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park.

This is our opportunity to finally bring Starlight back to life. But we cannot do it without you.

A key component of our submission is demonstrating strong fiscal support from our community. That means two things:

  1. Donations now – Every contribution, large or small, shows the City that San Diego is ready to invest in the future of Starlight.
  2. Letters of intent – Written commitments from individuals and organizations who pledge to donate once the lease is secured will help prove the depth of support behind this project.

We have just 30 days to make our case. The more momentum we show now, the greater our chance of success.

Together, we can ensure that the Starlight Bowl is not just preserved, but revitalized as a thriving cultural landmark for generations to come.

To visit the Save Starlight website, click here.

If you love the historic Starlight Bowl as much as I do, and want to help restore it to life, now’s your opportunity!

Did you know that many music legends have performed in the Starlight Bowl? They include Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Diana Ross, The Doobie Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Jewel, Cheap Trick, Beastie Boys and more!

Also, did you know that Wayne Nelson from the Little River Band has recently joined the Board of Directors of Save Starlight?

Click here to help save a true San Diego treasure!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Uncharted Elsewhere: surreal art at San Diego Library!

Do these works of art represent the “real” world? Are they entirely fantastic?

Surreal pieces now on display in the San Diego Central Library’s art gallery might seem strangely familiar–but why and how?

The free exhibition is titled Uncharted Elsewhere. Stimulating pieces created by nine regional artists transport the viewer into uncharted territory located somewhere in the human mind.

I visited the Central Library’s 9th floor Judith Harris Art Gallery this afternoon and was wowed by the creativity of artists who have a special gift. Through sculpture, textile, painting and works on paper, they make curious people stand a very long while and wonder.

Are those eggs? Are those faces? Are those webs? Is that plant life? Are those landforms? What are these weird, oddly familiar things?

How did these fantastic visions come into existence? And what in our complex world is possible or real?

How, I wondered, might these visions relate to my own experiences in life?

The artists themselves, in their descriptions, explain how, through abstraction, they aim to produce enigmatic, mysteriously organic environments. Their works induce introspection, and perhaps enlightenment.

If you like weird, imaginative works of art, you’ll love Uncharted Elsewhere. For me, it’s one of the most engaging exhibitions I’ve experienced in this gallery.

You can check the artwork out for yourself through January 4, 2026. Learn more about the exhibition, the artists and the gallery hours by clicking here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Chicago rocks Rady Shell in San Diego!

The legendary rock band Chicago performed before a sell-out crowd this evening in San Diego. Even after 58 years of touring, the guys can still bring it!

As the sun set, the Rady Shell filled up with fans. Hundreds more would listen to the concert from benches at the edge of San Diego Bay and the Marriott Marina. Boats anchored in the bay were there for the music, too, and dozens of people in lawn chairs on the Embarcadero Marina Park South pier had some great free seats.

Hit would followed hit all evening long–everything from Questions 67 & 68, to Make Me Smile, to Searchin’ So Long, to Old Days, to Does Anyone Know What Time It Is, to If You Leave Me Now, to Look Away . . .

The timeless jams and ballads were as great as ever. Three original band members–Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, and James Pankow–were unstoppable. It appears they’ve found the fountain of youth.

I hadn’t been to a Chicago concert since Bill Champlin and Jason Scheff departed as lead vocalists, so I wasn’t sure how I’d like the “new guy” Neil Donell. Oh wow! He actually sounds a whole lot like Peter Cetera!

It seems there is no stopping Chicago. America’s Band they call themselves. There’s no denying Chicago is a national treasure.

Yes, I got goosebumps. I’m sure many in the audience did, too!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Amazing transformation coming to Balboa Park!

An amazing transformation is coming soon to Balboa Park!

Hopefully by Thanksgiving, definitely in time for December Nights I’m told, the front entrance of the Municipal Gymnasium will be radically altered. The historic building will more closely resemble how it appeared when it debuted in 1935 as the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries during the California Pacific International Exhibition!

A construction fence in front of the Municipal Gymnasium was put up recently. Today I spotted workers atop the building’s marquee preparing the structure for its monumental transformation!

What will this amazing change look like when completed?

Click here and here to enjoy a preview, and learn more!

UPDATE!

A week later, I noticed the following changes. First, a descriptive sign appeared on the construction fence…

Municipal Gym Façade Restoration sign includes historical photo.

Second, markings have been made above the building’s marquee, in the space where the large bronze mural will be mounted…

ANOTHER UPDATE!

And a few days later…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!